VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Los Cabos or Puerto Plata?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Los Cabos for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Cabos’s own page.

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Los Cabos 84, Puerto Plata 80: Los Cabos leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, Puerto Plata 40: Los Cabos leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, Puerto Plata 38: Los Cabos leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, Puerto Plata 68: Los Cabos leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, Puerto Plata 30: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, Puerto Plata 18: Puerto Plata leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, Puerto Plata 35: Los Cabos leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos and Puerto Plata.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on nightlife and wellness with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Los Cabos has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Puerto Plata has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos CabosPuerto Plata
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m34 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosPuerto Plata
City population202,694-
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Cabos or Puerto Plata somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.